Manitou
Imagine a world where the land is covered by forests. Hot and moist, the air, seas and land are filled with a majority of bizarre, intriguing creatures. Manitou mostly resembles Earth during the Eocene, with bizarre, unique animals found nowhere else. The planet is almost double the size of the Earth, and so it is considered to be somewhat like Mars when it was forming, albeit with heavier gravity. Manitou is unique, as it superficially resembles Earth, however, it has no grass, orbits a red dwarf star, has three small rocky moons, and it is the second planet in its system, like Venus in our Solar System. It has more oxygen in its atmosphere, has a higher gravity, there are three regions: with one side of the planet being constantly blasted by light; another with dark, chemosynthetic plants; and a twilight zone with both photosynthetic and chemosynthetic plants. On the light side of Manitou and in the twilight zone, animals have two pairs of eyes, so that they can see in the dark; while on the dark side, the animals there have very small, useless eyes and instead rely on echolocation to see. General Summary Manitou is a very odd world, in terms of planetary behaviours. The dark side of this planet has chemosynthetic plants, while the light side of the planet has photosynthetic plants. The twilight zone has both. This planet's year is around 150 Earth days, as it has to be close to its star, which is a red dwarf, to support water, thus allowing life to develop. Manitou, as a whole, is a extreme world. On the bright side, type 5 hurricanes rage across the shores of Borealia, Arcto Island, Atlantis, the Lumerias, the Travellers Archipelago, Gibor, and Nogondwana, leaving heaps of debris in their wake. On the other side, local forest animals may experience miniature, harmless snow storms. Manitou's diameter is 18,742 km, which is 3 times the size of the Earth. The moons have a normal effect on the tides, all of which push on the tides, even though they are on the opposite sides of the moon, making waves that extend for 65 meters (213 ft), however, these do not effect the fauna, as many of it has learnt to fly. Solar flares occasionally occur, and, when they do, the animals will either find shelter or burn alive. Red dwarfs are also very cold stars, so all animals on Manitou, despite how primitive they may seem, produce their own heat. There is one thing that Manitou shares with Earth, however: small, simple celled bacteria that were introduced by asteroids, sailing across the cosmos. Manitou itself is 8 billion years old, almost double earth's age. Solar System Manitou orbits a red dwarf, which are locally known to support life. The first world in front of the star is another habitable world that looks like Venus on the exterior. Next is Manitou, with its floating, endothermic jellyfish/lung-like creatures, drawling their tentacles on the forest floor. Hunting them are a variety of strange, never before seen creatures, swarming about in their solar system. Outside of Manitou is a hot, Mars-like world half the size of Manitou, incapable of supporting life. Then there is a gap, which would extend from Venus to Jupiter if it were in our Solar System. After the asteroid belt, there is a brown dwarf, it is a common brown dwarf, and is very cold. It has been commonly called "Crisp", and its catalogue number is Virgo 56 E. It has several planetoids, and is hit with many asteroids from the inner belt (called Darwin's belt) and the asteroid belt at the end (which is commonly called Newton's belt). Behind Crisp, there are 2 gas giants around the size of Neptune and Uranus. These worlds have in total 40–80 moons, most of which are asteroids caught from the Darwin and Newton belts. Behind the two is another gas giant around 1.25 times the size of Jupiter, orbiting just 24 million kilometres from Newton's belt, at the end of the system. Newton's belt extends for 161 million kilometres after the last planet, and is filled with 5 cm rocks up to 700 km planetoids, relics from the early days of Manitou's system. Category:Astrobiology Category:Planets